NEW YORK - The dog days of August replaced October's last hurrah Thursday as major league baseball's most exciting season in 25 years was stopped by a players strike.
When the final out was made at 12:45 a.m. ET in Oakland, in the Seattle Mariners' 8-1 victory against the A's, the strike was unofficially under way.
If what could become a long and bitter walkout wipes out the playoffs and World Series, fans and players will wonder what might have been.
-- Would San Diego's Tony Gwynn have become the first player since Ted Williams in 1941 to bat .400? Gwynn raised his average to .394 Thursday by going 3-for-5 in an 8-6 victory against Houston.
-- Could San Francisco's Matt Williams or Seattle's Ken Griffey Jr. have threatened Roger Maris' 1961 season home-run record of 61? Williams has 43 homers, Griffey 40.
-- Could Atlanta's Greg Maddux become the first pitcher to win three consecutive Cy Young Awards? He pitched a three-hit shutout Thursday and lowered his ERA to 1.56 in Atlanta's 13-0 rout of Colorado.
-- Would the New York Yankees be in the postseason for the first time since '81? They're leading the AL East, but that could mean little if there's no more season.
Labor negotiations not only took the game off the field Thursday but could keep it off the field well into 1995 if owners and players cannot reach a compromise about management's desire for a salary cap.
No talks are planned for Friday as players return home with no plans to resume play.
"I assume if (owners negotiatior) Dick (Ravitch) has something to tell me, he'll tell me," union chief Don Fehr said late Thursday. "For all practical purposes, the strike officially begins with the first game Friday. But if nothing changes through Thursday night, by Friday morning, they're going home."
Added Fehr: "In this kind of a situation, it's possible for things to move very quickly if something triggers it, but I don't see it now."
